Codename: Quirk - Designation: Weapon
by TheOneHoyle
Summary: AU. After Quirks appeared, the world went to hell. Heroes turned into weapons and children turned into soldiers. Will the horrors of a long-running war break our protagonists? Or could the presence of a new hero return them the hope they have lost? MinaDeku
1. Just a Mission

**Code-name: QUIRK. Designation: Weapon.**

 **Chapter 1: Just a Mission**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia (yada yada yada)**

 **This is my 4th Fanfic. It's also my first try at a full Alternative Universe, so I hope my writing style will get better with each chapter.**

 **Also, credit where credit is due, this fic was inspired by "The HERO Project", by Flying Porkchop. Check his fic out! After you finish this one, of course hahaha.**

. . . . . . .

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Focus. And don't mess up.

2:58 AM

Pulling herself up, Mina left her hiding spot between the foliage and started sprinting towards the side of the building, leaving the shadows that had concealed her presence. Her breathing was already erratic. Sneaking in the woods for a full hour had been hard enough. Doing it quickly to be where she in position on time had only upped the difficulty of it. And now, her body wasn't reacting so well to the anticipation of what could happen if she was found, or if she was just a second too late or too early. It was her tenth mission. She should have it controlled by know!

As she approached the building nearest wall, she generated a small coat of thick, strong acid on her hands as she readied for jumping as high as she could. When she lunged upwards, she placed her hands on the wall, dissolving part of it and creating holders, to which her fingers hold for her life. She sighed in relief. One thing she had worried about was done. She was on the wall. Now, climbing.

With all the strength her arms gave her, she started generating more holders as she put a hand in a higher level. Left, right, left, right. It was harder than climbing the rope, having to maintain her hands against the wall for a small interval of time to let her acid dissolve enough concrete to let her proceed to the next one. It wasn't until her feet reached the level of the first holder that it became easier. Now, with a stable footing, she could ascend at a higher pace. Her lips curved. 'I'm rocking it!' she though as her unique eyes fixed themselves on her objective: The nearest window, 5 meters ahead of her.

As she approached her window and her muscles started to ache, a soft voice appeared from the communication device on her ear "Ok, Ashido, the signal is going in 20. Are you in position?" asked a female voice, which, although stern, did little to cover its owner's fear. Mina sighed, worried for her. The General had actually let Yaomomo command this mission, after a long time. The decision had perplexed Mina, to say the least, and she knew she wasn't alone on the sentiment. On one hand, it could make wonders for Yaomomo. She needed a victory. They all did, and if all went well it would be cause of celebration. A chance to erase all digital records of known quirks in their country… it would do wonders for them. Not taking account of the possibility of taking out an important target. On the other… she hadn't recovered her whole confidence after her previous defeat, which had taken a toll on both her self-confidence and initiative. Not that Mina could hold her accountable for it. No, there was someone else that holds much more responsibility on that regard, and she blamed her.

"Yeah, just one… more… there we go!" she answered, as she gave a last push and reached the window's height. Looking down would be a bad idea at the moment. However, if she did anything wrong, she would want to had ended with the 6 meter drop she was being offered at the moment.

"Ok, you'll have less than a 5 second window. Mei is sending the code in 5, 4, 3, 2, go in!"

As she heard the command, Mina threw a coat of acid all over the window, covering it entirely. As soon as she heard the sound of glass dissolving, she pulled up and let herself fall inside the building. Luckily, the plan had gone perfectly. She had been there exactly at 3am, moment when the main computer restarted itself as to avoid overloading. While the computer restarted, the less technological sensors had proceeded to activate. Sensors that could be disrupted with the use of a small frequency EMP for a short amount of time, and leave no record of said disruption. Even if she wasn't the smartest person in the team technology-wise, she had a decent grasp of the basics.

Unluckily, she hadn't planned her landing, and found herself falling head-first into the ground.

"Crap! Nice, Mina" she mumbled to herself, sitting down against the wall and rubbing her forehead and her horns. "Ashido here. I'm in. I´ll report once I've found one of the targets. Prepare yourselves to come get me" she whispered to the earphone. Feeling the pain going away, she looked at the former window, now a hole in the wall, and then at her hands, which still had remains of the acid she had thrown. Her own power. Her Quirk.

They were now on the third decade after quirks have first appeared. She had been told only stories about the first years. How some people started to discover they had been granted abilities which made them more than human. No one knew how or why. One moment you could be on your living room trying to reach the TV remote, and the next one the remote flew across the table to your hand. Suddenly, you were using your powers to steal stuff undetected from a block away. Luckily for the non-quirked majorities, quirked individuals were so rare, it was a matter of profiling them and controlling their actions. Many of the initial criminals were put away, but some, the most powerful ones… they couldn't be faced. How do you face a guy who has the ability to level down buildings, and inhabits in a residential area? And worse, how do you do that if you don't even know when he will strike again, or who he is?

The answer came in a beam of light, so to speak: Heroes. Incredible individuals with powerful quirks or amazing abilities who fought against the evildoers. Quirked or non-quirked, the good people had had enough of watching how bad men and women gave the wrong idea: that quirks were evil, and that power corrupted. They used their own power to battle against the crime syndicates, the mobs, the super powered terrorists, and, with that initiative, the world reached a couple of years of peace.

With that thought, Mina picked herself up and pulled out her 'Acid Gun', as Mei called it. A single pistol, somewhat similar to a water one but made out of metal and alloys, connected to a device that covered her left forearm by a tube that ran from said device, up her arm and behind her neck, then offering free maneuverability of the gun. She followed the steps she had been taught to activate the contraption in her left arm, and, after turning it on, she started the process of secreting acid of her forearm to fill it, while she started to run down the corridors of the building, searching at least one of the things she had come for. She had to go downstairs and find the mainframe.

'If only things could have stayed that way' she thought. It wasn't the first time she had that thought, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. After a couple of years of what historians now called 'the Hero days', a madman in a position of power uttered the infamous words that would shape the world to the state it was now. Five simple words, so basic in nature they could have been said by a 4 year old. The difference was that it was said for the media to exploit, for the world to hear and for the government to react: "We have the strongest heroes".

Those damning words, words which started the slope that would destroy families and whole cities. In no time, governments had their armies talking. Did they have the strongest heroes? How strong were they in comparison to their neighbors? Armies, Generals, even Presidents approached their country's heroes and ask them a single question: 'Would they serve?'

Many heroes declined, of course. They were warriors of peace, not of war, and they would keep serving the people as such. Some months passed were the people who wanted peace actually thought their pleas, speeches and protest marches had actually worked. Some governments made their decisions public. They would never think about starting a war, and would actively talk against it. Others just hoped the atmosphere would go away.

That was until a couple of them revealed that the future of peace was just an illusion. They had gotten superheroes to side with them. War was now fought with super powered beings. A normal military occupation, which in the past would have involved tactics, machines and the like, was completely discarded. Because no army on earth alone could face another which had an individual with the power of exploding suns. No tank would be able to even tickle a woman with strength so great she could throw one over her head with her pinky. The countries that were now under attack had no way of assuring any safety for their soldiers on the battlegrounds. Battling one of them was a slaughter. So the heroes who had stand against this, and said no, now were given a reason to serve. Only they had a chance to defeat the powered beings that were being used as weapons, by becoming weapons themselves. They registered themselves on the military and got training and a rank. They were officially soldiers in a war that their mere existence had started. A war most of them never wanted.

A war Mina hadn't wanted either, she thought as she ran, but for her entire life, that's what she'd known. As she ran, a source of light caught her attention. Suddenly aware and with all of her senses focused, she slowly approached to see that it came from inside a room, with chatter behind the door. At least 2 voices came from the room, a man and a woman, probably soldiers. Soldiers who could sound the alarm.

"… little town a couple of miles west, and a nice pub. Would be nice if you joined"

"Thanks, Max, but I don't think I would mix that well with you guys" answered the woman, giggling.

Preparing her weapon, Mina put her hand in the doorknob, and started her countdown. Three. Inhale, exhale. Two. Inhale, exhale.

One.

Pushing the door, Mina found herself in an office, a desk with a computer in the middle of the room and another door on the back, probably going into another one. Tall file drawers against the walls. The guy was sitting on top of a desk, looking directly at her, his expression one of pure shock, hand already going for his weapon still in the holster. The woman was probably behind the computer, as she could not see her from where she was standing. The man put the hand that wasn't fighting with the holster up, maybe trying to beg for mercy. Mina didn't care, nor gave it a second thought. With a serene face, she aimed and pulled the trigger. A single shot of acid at the speed of a bullet flew towards the man and hit his hand. Only it didn't stopped there. The acid continued its straight trajectory and hit him in the neck, finally stopping after reaching the wall behind the man.

Leaving a still standing corpse with two gaping holes, eyes open in surprise, like if the body still hadn't realized it was already dead.

As soon as the man started falling, Mina jumped over the desk and turned her sight to see the female. She was ready to pull the trigger when her outfit got her attention. She wasn't in uniform. More importantly, she was in a suit, common for a secretary. She wasn't a fighter. She was absolutely terrified of her, and Mina couldn´t blame her. She had just killed her coworker, and was pointing her weapon directly at her. She could end any threat from her and pull the trigger. It would make it so much easier…

This was her work, after all. Nearly all quirked individuals, independently of their power level, served their respective governments. However, not all quirked people had the strength of a General, like General Yagi or General Todoroki. Those were the kind of people you could see in the middle of a battleground. Individuals who, by taking a single step into the battlefield, they could change the entire course of a battle. They could obliterate the opposition in a matter of minutes. They were gods among mortals, in a way. However, not all quirks worked that way. Many of them, like hers, could be used for offense but weren't considered as powerful. Quirked individuals like that couldn't be sent into battle, because, if they were recognized, the opposing army would target them specially.

But like any quirked, they were still an important asset. An intelligence-enhancer quirk wouldn't do any good in a fight, but leaving it behind the frontlines and letting its user plan strategies, it was priceless. Mei's quirk, zoom, made her indispensable as a sniper. That's where she and the rest of the fighters who didn't have god-level quirks came in: They could get shit done. Put them in the right place at the right time, and they could make wonders for the war. They were trained to be special ops teams. To get in and out before anyone realized it, and to leave a mess behind.

Letting out a breath she hadn't realize she had been holding, Mina approached the secretary, "Up and against the wall" she ordered, making every conscious effort to not let her knew about the moment of doubt she'd had. This woman wasn't a soldier. She didn't have blood on her hands. She wasn't responsible for the death of any of the people she had known and now weren't there. Pushing her to the ground, she pulled some tape out of pocket in her suit, and used it to make a muzzle for her now prisoner. Tape in her arms, legs, ears, eyes… all standard procedures to avoid her getting any information or making her work here harder.

"Yaoyorozu, I've found a computer" she announced to her communication device, a triumphant tone in her voice. Everything was going well! She couldn't help letting out a small celebration dance, a smile on her face and her arms moving to the rhythm of an outdated song. She practically skipped towards the computer. Her hands on the keyboard, she found the program which controlled the security cameras in no time. She only had to reroute them, make them see another way so they avoided what was coming. "And… you can come in through the south entrance. Ochako, tell Mei to prepare the vehicle for us to get out as soon as Momo is done"

"Okay, Ashido, I'm coming in right now. Good job" said their black-haired leader.

"Right, Mina. We will be here warming it up" said the voice of the gravity-quirk user.

Pulling up the fallen chair the secretary had been using, Mina let herself sat down and started to rub her neck muscles. These last days had been a stress-fest. The preparations, inquiring the contacts, the pre-operation training, and their party should also have been bigger, but their resident hot-head had suddenly gone missing after a fit of rage. He tended to do that. Why he did that, nobody knew, but it amused Mina and did made for laughing matter, for which she was grateful.

"Ashido, I'm inside and zeroing on your position. Any sign of the quirked target?"

Crap. The target. Their contacts had mentioned of rumors of a quirked individual in the base, but none of them could place what her quirk was, or her identity. At least they knew it was a female. That reduced it to half of the known quirked individuals they had on record, a record that was still severely lacking. Putting herself to work, she started to run through every desktop file she could find, but no luck. No female looked familiar from her long hours in which she was ordered to try memorizing the record of quirked humans. No mention of a quirk. They kept it secret even from their own people, as anyone would.

"Negative" muttered Mina, eyes fixed on the screen. "Also… Yaomomo?" she asked, realizing something around her. This was the only computer here. Not even a big enough hardware to keep all the information they were supposed to be erasing. Everything else was in a physical document, filed around the room. "None of it is digital"

"What?!" shouted Momo, opening the door and looking directly at Ashido. She let her gaze wonder around the room to the dozens of drawers along the walls. Walking to Mina's side, she started to mutter. Mina didn't like that. She had to just sit there while Momo walked from one side of the room to the other, sometimes stopping to open a drawer, look at some records and closing it with frustration. It didn't look good. "Nononono… this can't be. The records were supposed to be here! Or at least a way to access them!"

Mina tried to calm her down "Maybe they are here. Maybe they are just hidden. If we burn the documents we could…"

"But we wouldn't be certain!" shouted Momo, interrupting and scaring Mina. Her friend could be a nice girl, but it was at moments like this that she stopped caring about other people. She only cared about the mission, and if the mission wasn't successful…

"Momo, calm down. You are the leader here, you have to…" Mina lost what she was saying when both of them heard a sound they wished they wouldn't hear this night. A sound that drained the color from Yaoyorozu's face, and made Mina stared at her with eyes open in shock: the sound of rapid-fire in the distance.

With near to no time interval between it and the sound, they heard Ochako's voice from their communication devices "MOMO! WE'VE BEEN FOUND! MEI GOT A LOOK AT THE QUIRKED! SUPER-HEARING, YOU COPY?!" her voice was blasting against the loud noises of machineguns been discarded in their direction "WE ARE COMING IN TO RENDEZVOUS WITH YOU! ESCAPE ROUTES ARE BLOCKED!"

Mina's mind started to go at hyper-speed. Super-hearing. That means she had been warned by someone who knew they were inside. Someone who had to either been warned they were here, or had seen one of them. Color drained from Mina's face as realization came, making her turn in fear of being right. Of having discovered what had happen.

"M-momo… I'm so sorry" she whispered, her voice trembling from fear. She was right.

Yaoyorozu turned to see something she hadn't notice when she came inside. Lying on the ground, there was another person. The secretary, although completely immobilized and devoid of her senses, had moved a bit. Enough to let her scratch the ground, and warn the hearing quirk's user. Momo stopped moving as memories ran in front of her. Memories of her last great failure, and the toll they had on them. "It's my fault. It always is. I'm sorry. I'm sorry" she started mumbling, frozen in position.

Mina ran to her friend's side and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her "NO ITS NOT! SNAP OUT OF IT!" to accentuate her point, Mina did something she rarely did, and never to her friends: she slapped Momo across the face. She hated herself for doing it, but it was the only way to get her friend out of her trance "WE NEED TO GET OUT! SOUTH ENTRANCE! NOW!"

Pushing Momo to the door, Mina turned around to throw a coat of acid against the computer with her left. They have to leave no fingerprints or evidence of what they had been doing there. She started the sprint towards the corridor, his right hand holding her acid gun as if it was her life depended on it. Momo opened the door and they run, hearing footsteps and yelling behind them.

"MOMO! Weapons, now!" shouted Mina at the top of her lungs. Get over it, Yaomomo!

"Weapons. Yes, yes" mumbled Momo Yaoyorozu as she opened her jacket and pulled a Glock from her belly. Not the best or the most complicated in design, but at least it was something. Mina kept running, focusing on where to go. There was a window at the end of the corridor! Only 15 meters away! They only had to get there…

As soon as she had finished that thought, a bullet flew past her ear. She gasped, fear invading her thoughts. This was it, wasn't it? She was going to die in a failed mission, and it was going to be her fault. Her fault for showing some humanity to someone she saw as innocent. Her fault for not finishing the job like she had always been told to by her trainers. She was going to die in a shooting range, like hitting an elephant in a corridor, more literal than she had ever wanted. This was it.

The first thing that came was the sound of the rifles shooting bullets in her direction. She didn't want to see it. She preferred to not see death once it came. She was afraid of dying. Mina had always been afraid of dying. Fighting not because she deeply believed in some cause, but only to stay alive in a world where the life she had been given was the only thing pushing her forward. She could feel a tear running down her cheek. Sadness for leaving so soon.

What came next was a surprise for Mina: the sound of metal against metal. Letting herself turn around and see what had happened, she saw Yaomomo, a metal shield on her hand, and a fierce look in her eyes. "Yaoyorozu to Base! We've been compromised! We ask for extraction! Maximum priority!" she shouted in a commanding voice. Mina couldn't stop herself from smiling, looking at Momo with watery eyes. She was back, and they needed her if they were going to have any chance of making it out of there alive. "Mina! Keep running! Break that window!"

"YES!" shouted Mina in a spike of energy, pointing her gun forward, and shooting a number of small streams towards the window, making it easier to break.

"Base to Yaoyorozu! We don't have anyone near you! A team could get to you in 30!"

"What about Bakugo?! Tell the bastard there's no other way!"

"Negative! We haven't found him yet!"

Cursing the blond diva, Mina kept running for her life. It had to be today that he decided to have a tantrum, right!? "Base, this is Ashido! We are being overrun!"

For a couple of seconds, no sound came from the other side of the connection. Each tenth of a second felt like an eternity to Mina. They couldn't leave them here! They were their most effective team! It had to count for something, right?!

"Code Green" they heard being said on the other side of the call, in a hushed, stern voice that could only belong to Colonel Aizawa. It wasn't even directed to them, but more as a statement to all present on the Base at the moment. To Mina, that voice felt godsend. She could have a lot of problems with the higher-ups, but Aizawa had earned their trust in more than one occasion. She knew he actually cared about them. But with that, the call was cut.

"Base! Respond!" shouted Momo, to no avail. The only ones in the frequency were now the four girls. Cursing, she continued to run towards the window. They were near!

'Hope you're there, Ochako' thought Mina as she jumped towards the window, and, with a fist coated with acid, punched the glass surface with every bit of strength she had, breaking it and letting them pass and fall towards the ground, 3 meters below.

They would have hit the ground and probably broke their necks if a known brown-haired girl hadn't been waiting for them, ready to touch them, release them of their weight and help them reach the surface of the back of a truck. Mei was driving. Mina would have advised against that if Ochako hadn't chosen that moment to give them a quick hug. Leave it to Ochako to give affection in both the worst moment possible and right when she needed it.

"Uraraka, Mei, control says there is no extraction plan!" shouted Momo, making them both stare in disbelieve. As soon as she'd said that, she created a more complicated piece of weaponry: a grenade launcher. She had regain control of herself.

"What? They can't leave us here!" shouted Mei from the vehicle's driver seat. Momo turned around and fired the grenade launcher into the building from where they had come from. An explosion signaled that no danger would be coming from that direction.

"ALL, DOWN!" cried Momo as a squad of soldiers who had apparently given chase to the vehicle opened fire on them, forcing all of them to use the vehicle as cover. It wasn't long until another group opened fire from a different position. They were surrounded. "Here, protect yourselves!" shouted Momo as she started to hand out metal shields. She wanted to keep them alive as long as it was possible.

'Aizawa, where are you?' thought Mina, the sound of gunfire and bullets hitting metal around her. For a second time tonight, she felt as if this were the moments just before a bullet found her skull. It filled her with sadness and fear. Sadness of stop living. Fear of not knowing what would happen after that. She couldn't find it possible not to exist. She had fought her way forward all her life…

She could feel how the soldiers were zeroing on them. She could hear Ochako crying, clutching her leg. She had been hit and was bleeding. Momo was mumbling in both fear and trying to find a way out. She was sure Mei was hiding behind the car seat, most likely tinkering with something trying to create a way out. And something she didn't recognize. It sounded like a rocket or a plane; she wasn't sure, flying above their position. Maybe they were going to be blown to smithereens. She let out a sigh, and started to count, trying to regain a bit of calm before what she knew was coming: the end. Just like she had been taught: to make the world go mute.

Three. Inhale, exhale. Two. Inhale, exhale.

One.

As she started to stand up, not realizing her friends were looking at her like she was crazy and shouting at the top of their lungs for her to take cover, a gust of wind with the strength of a hurricane pushed her back, making her fly and hit the side of the building, cracking some ribs. The impact made her expel all the air in her lungs and sent pain through her body, making her open her eyes, sound returning to the world. As soon as her body touched the ground, she looked up to what was happening.

The entire squadron of shooters had been hit by the wind pressure. They were scattered, some knocked out, some hurrying to get up and pointing their guns towards a giant crater that had appeared in the ground near them. The site looked like a bomb had gone off. Earth had been blown away and dust filled the air. Some soldiers were still confused, wondering and attending their comrades. But what took Mina's attention was what climbed out of the crater.

It was a boy. One boy, maybe around her age. He had green eyes and green, wild-looking curly hair, with black highlights in it. His expression was one of anger; he wasn't smiling, his mouth making it clear he was mumbling something to himself, something Mina wasn't able to hear. His freckles took away any semblance of adulthood his face could have, but that wasn't a problem. He was wearing sports shorts and red, oversized sneakers, with the remnants of a t-shirt falling from his torso in shambles, leaving way for Mina to watch his muscles. The guy was built. Even calling him built was cutting it short! Every muscle he possessed looked made of stone. That added to the fact he looked as he came out of the ground, he looked like a war god. He was glowing, energy flowing through his body like electricity, red tendrils of it through his body, and a green electric aura crackling and doing arcs around him. Automatically, Mina knew this guy had the power of a General.

Standing there, however, he was an easy shot. The soldiers aimed in his direction, ready to pull the triggers. For them, as powerful as this guy could be, he was still human. And they were trained to kill both human and superhuman alike. Mina wanted to shout for the green-haired boy to take cover. She didn't know him, she didn't even know if he was there to help them or if he was part of a third party. But move, idiot!

Like in slow motion, the boy pulled back one arm, reading himself for an attack. Placing his right foot in the ground in front of him forcefully, he produced a loud noise that reached the place from where the girls were watching. And so fast that Mina only saw a blur, his fist came forward in the troop's direction, accompanied by a scream.

"SMASH!"

With those words, the world went upside down. Winds even stronger than the ones before fell on the soldiers, lifting them from the ground and throwing them away. Some of them were lucky to be pinned down into the ground. Other flew up and into the woods, falling from meters of height, most likely meeting their demise. The girls were again pinned against a wall, protecting their faces from the dust the winds carried in their directions, not knowing what was happening, deafened by the sound similar to that of a hurricane. With all of her senses impaired, Mina just waited.

"Are you girls' all right?"

Mina uncovered her eyes to discover that the winds had died out. And in front of her was the boy. He stood in such a heroic way it was difficult to describe. Both feet on the ground, his back arched a bit only to offer them a helping hand. He was covered in scars, a detail the glow that had surrounded him hadn't let her see. His eyes show full concern for them, for her, it was unbelievable that he could be a soldier. His lips arched in a smile, as to reassure her that she was all right, that the danger had passed. Stretching her hand, Mina was tempted to take his offer and grab his hand to stand up… until she discovered something that made her jump away.

His arm. The right arm, the one with which he had thrown the punch was covered in bruises. It was also flailing like a pendulum to every movement he made, broken in one… no, it was probably broken in multiple places. How on earth he was still standing was a mystery to Mina, he should have already passed out. His body was probably working by the power of adrenaline alone.

"My name is Izuku Midoriya. I was send here to help your team-"

"YOUR ARM!" shouted Momo, covering her mouth with both hands, eyes wide with terror. Mei had gotten out of the battered up truck, and was watching him with interest. Uraraka was too focused on her leg to watch the interactions in front of her, sweat on her forehead as she covered her wound with some first aid.

"I... uhm…" the guy that went by the name of Midoriya looked at the loss of words. As soon as Momo's words reached him, his smile was gone, lips starting to tremble, color leaving his face. He started to frown, and a tear started to form in his left eye. "I was kind of… hoping to ignore it" he admitted, and let out a nervous laugh as his other hand flew to his right side, clutching the broken arm. He stood there, not knowing what to say as his whole body started to tremble, realizing in how much pain he was. Mina wasn't the best in first aids, but she knew enough to understand that his adrenaline had run dry, and that the pain was hitting him in waves. She jumped to her feet, and covered the distance between them as his gaze went blank and his eyes started rolling upwards. He fell forward, but she was there to catch him, struggling against his weight once it reached her. He had passed out due to the pain of his broken arm, and Mina couldn't blame him. The mere fact that he had stayed awake this long was superhuman.

As Momo helped Ochako with her injuries and Mei fixed the truck for them to get away from there and rendezvous with the nearby forces, Mina didn't left Midoriya's side. She didn't know why, but she felt protective of the muscular guy. It wasn't because she felt special about him saving her. He didn't mean to save specifically her; he was there to help the whole team. She just happened to be part of it, and this wasn't like those child stories of white knights coming to the rescue, Mina had grown to dislike those. And it wasn't because of the impression the guy's muscles had left on her, she knew people as impressive as him, even though a bit less. Shoto, Iida and Bakugo were clear contenders. Mina didn't know why, but, as she was helped by Momo to put him in the back of the truck, she placed his head on her lap. She kept repeating herself it wasn't anything special. It was only to avoid him hitting his head, as the front row was taken with Mei driving and Uraraka not being able to walk that well. It didn't mean anything.

But as they drove away from what had turned into a battleground, Mina saw his face. He was sleeping, exhausted and passed out. His arm was in a plastic cast Momo had produced, the bruises and signs of dead tissue still clear through the holes of it. In his unconsciousness, Mina could see more details about him. His scars were bigger than she had originally assessed. He had three noticeable scars, two of them being one in each shoulder. They ran all the way around each shoulder, making it seem as if they separated the arms from the torso. The other noticeable scar was located in the middle of his torso, and it ran deep and long, separating his abdominal muscles down the center, as well as his pectorals, going on the left side of his neck, and it only disappeared once it reached his back. The rest of his skin had small scars every now and there, it took Mina's attention as she discovered new ones every time he glanced at the sleeping boy.

Suddenly, it downed on her. He radiated innocence, as weird as that sounded. Mina knew he was no soldier. She could tell that his attack had been non-lethal in intent, even if not in results. His sleeping face, with his freckles and his cheeks… it was cute, in a way, even if a bit plain. That innocence was what made her protective of him. If she was right, and she needed to discover if she was, then this guy wasn't part of the army. This guy hadn't gone there with the intent of killing. This guy had entered an armed conflict with the sole intention of saving them. This guy… this guy had been pointed with guns, guns she'd seen kill hundreds of men and women, just to save four girls he didn't knew.

Watching him sleep, Mina couldn't stop herself from letting out a smile. A smiled that appeared because she felt moved by this guy, a guy she didn't knew, but she wanted to know more about; a guy that had saved her, not because he was ordered to do it, but because he wanted to. She wanted to get to know him. She wanted to get to know the guy so selfless that he had jumped right into battle while not being a soldier, just to save them.

That smile only lasted a couple of seconds, and it was followed by a frown. Mina knew that everyone had an interest that played part in deciding what course of action they took. And it was probable, even if the probability was slim, that this guy also had an agenda. Even if every part of her wanted to trust the guy, she couldn't let herself forget that single fact. She had to avoid being careless, and discover what it was.

"Midoriya, you and I have a lot of stuff to talk about"

. . . . . . .

 **Hope you enjoyed! As mentioned before, this is going to be a continuing series! The AU was hard to get ready, as it started with just a mere concept. I will expand about it on next chapters, this one was mainly to establish who the main characters are (I will also focus more on some characters who were left with little development), the possible routes their relationships will go, and the state of the world in this AU, so follow and favorite if you want to see more! Leave some feedback; you don't know how much it means to me! If you liked it and it's your first time reading my work, then maybe try my other stories, one a bit angst and a full-fluff one-shot hahaha.**

 **As for "Midoriya Izuku: In Memoriam", my other ongoing series, if you know about it then I will use this opportunity to explain the hiatus: the semester in college is near its end and exams are coming. It has been a stress-fest 24/7. That mixed with some personal issues, it left me a bit not-too-able of writing such an angsty series, so I ended up writing "A Couple of Drinks", a fluffier story to help myself cope with everything. I have also been A LOT more active on my tumblr "TheOneHoyle"; I have drawn a lot, including a couple of concept arts for this story! So look me up there, see if my drawings are of your liking! However, I have not forgotten about that story, and will finish writing next chapter once all this madness comes to an end.**

 **Well, thanks a lot for reading! Wear your seatbelts! And to those who are facing exams like me: Sarani mukou e! PLUS ULTRA!**


	2. Who is Izuku Midoriya?

**Codename: Quirk – Classification: Weapon**

 **Chapter 2: Who is Izuku Midoriya?**

. . . . . . .

"So, short version: mission was a failure" said Colonel Aizawa from the opposite side of the table, rubbing his nose bridge and with his characteristic tired expression.

Mina saw Momo gulping. She had little reason to be afraid, given that it was Aizawa she was talking with, but she always tended to overthink her failures. It was something that always worried Mina, but Momo never gave any reason for it to be based on any sort of trauma, or disorder. She just was a perfectionist, in contrast to her pink friend. "Yes" said the black-haired girl, looking directly at Aizawa, trying her best to ignore everyone else.

While Momo was sitting down on the giant round table, the other three girls were standing up behind her. She had commanded the mission. She was the one reporting. If Mina could, she would have wanted to share the stress her friend was under. Momo was being heard by people varying from Commanders and all the way up the Army hierarchy to Generals themselves. She had recounted the entire operation. How they had successfully infiltrated the enemy base. How they had been discovered. How it had all been for nothing. How she had failed.

Eyes wondering the room, Mina could not see the walls, covered in darkness. The sole source of light was used to illuminate the large table and the people sitting in them, leaving Mina, Ochako, Mei and a couple other individuals in shadows. Only the team that had gone in the mission and some key individuals in the army were allowed into this room. Most of the officers here weren't even allowed to bring their secretaries or any other kind of aide. That was the nature of the secret operations quirked individuals were send to: they were treated with the utmost secrecy, results and nature only known by a handful of people. Records would be edited to only include the very basics, and never go into digital filing. No one would know the names of the girls, or that they were ever there.

It was all pretty standard for Mina. It had surprised her at first, but had become more of a routine as time passed and she went in more missions. Some of them had been easy: recover a target, infiltrate and destroy records, all pretty basic. They would then report, a meeting like this would be held, and the mission would never be talked about.

However, that wasn't the case when the mission was unsuccessful. The number of officials doubled in those cases. They all proceeded to assess risks and some of them would shout at the failing team for their failure. Mina hated that, mainly because most of the time the ones doing the shouting were the quirkless officers. The ones they only looked at reports.

Those who didn't knew the danger of the missions they were sent to.

Mina then looked back at the black-haired man in directly in front of them. At least Colonel Aizawa had been softer on Momo. The guy could be stricter than most, but he knew them from time back. Back when they were still in their first year of the academy, he had been their trainer, and had stayed with them throughout their training. He had seen them grow, and some of them thought that he had only accepted the promotion once he knew he would still be able to help them once they started their own military careers. Of course, he would never admit it nor give any hints about it, but the timing had been right and Mina herself couldn't stop herself of thinking it was that way.

However, there was something odd today. He had specifically avoided a particular subject, and controlled Momo's narrative so that she didn't touch the subject either: the mysterious green-haired teen that went by the name of Izuku Midoriya.

After a long trip to join with the troops and being transported via helicopter to base, a medical team had approached them. They attended Uraraka, but, using the movement their arrival had caused, they quickly took Midoriya away from them. Against Mina's shouting and asking for explanations, a doctor had clearly stated that they weren't allowed to join him, reminding her of her rank and how she had to obey him. Immediately after he was taken away, however, he and the other medical personal started acting like nothing had happened, like he had never existed. It had annoyed Mina. She was going to ask Aizawa what he knew, and she wouldn't accept a no for an answer.

Who was Izuku Midoriya, and why was he such a close-guarded secret?

Mina's thoughts had wandered so far from the meeting that she was surprised when Aizawa announced the meeting was over. A couple of officers automatically sprung to their feet and left the room, followed by their aides. Some others started muttering between them about what the mission meant to them, most likely seeing how it would fit in their personal agendas. Mina looked at Momo, and saw that Ochako had already walked forward and was trying to calm her friend, who had managed to maintain a professional attitude throughout the meeting, even if they knew that she was an emotional mess. Mei was already with her back against the wall, taking out some project from her pocket to tinker with. She tended to be the more reserved of the group, unless you were talking with her about some of her gadgets. Mina didn't like that about the girl, among other things. At least she could care a bit about Momo, right? She then walked to friend's side and squeezed her arm, in an attempt of showing support. However, she could not stay there, she thought, as she saw Aizawa yawn and leave the room.

She had someone to talk to.

She ran towards the door and exited the room without missing her pace, founding the hallways really packed with the officers that had exited the room and a bigger group of people talking to some of them, most likely wanting to know what had happen. It took her a couple of seconds, in which she stood on her toes and tried to look above her head, but she finally was able to locate Aizawa, walking away from the meeting and not talking to anyone other than to correspond a salute.

"Colonel Aizawa!" shouted Mina, waving at her superior as he turned around, her trademark Ashido smile already on her face.

Sighing, Aizawa waited for Mina to catch up with him "Ashido, for the hundred time, learn to act with professionalism," he grunted. The girl took all the liberties she could once she got to know someone. "What do you need?"

Mina looked around her, making sure no one was hearing them. Everyone else in the hallway was too immersed on their own conversations to notice a quirked individual talking to a non-quirked colonel. But she knew that what she was about to ask about could affect Aizawa's career. He had hushed while issuing the command back in the mission. He had kept Midoriya's involvement in the mission a complete secret. So she didn't want to be the one to throw all those risks out the window. "Who is Izuku Midoriya?" she asked, whispering in her lowest tone.

For a couple of seconds, Aizawa's face was harder to read than any unknown dialect. Mina and her friends had once laughed about it, joking about how he could be a professional poker player if he hadn't got himself involved in the military. When he finally spoke, he did so with a stern voice "Ashido, I will ask you to never talk about that with anyone. The less people know about it, the better" he said.

Mina understood that. She did. If he had kept it as secret as he had, then it meant it was important. But if she already knew, then why not tell her?

"What do you me-"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THE MEETING IS OVER?!" a strong voice boomed down the corridor, enraged. A voice that made Mina stand upright with a hand to her forehead in salute, and made Aizawa joined her, though clearly not in fear, unlike Mina. Through the corner of her eye, Mina say Momo, Uraraka and Mei exit the room, Momo quickly trying to hide the handkerchief she had been previously holding and hurrying to salute.

With loud steps, the huge figure of General Enji 'Endeavour' Todoroki came into view, as everyone moved to the sides to avoid being in his path. With a furious expression and his trademark fire moustache, he looked down on nearly everyone. "AIZAWA!" he shouted, making loud noises with every step he took. Even when out of combat, the General radiated pure power, and he was clearly pissed about not having made it on time.

"Yes, General Todoroki?" asked the Colonel, with a tired voice. In contrast with nearly everyone in the army, he wasn't afraid of the General and his fiery personality. It helped he was rarely scared. Some actually thought the guy didn't know the meaning of fear.

"YOU WILL BRIEVE ME ABOUT THE MEETING." With those words, the General continued his march down the corridor, without acknowledging anyone else except the person he had addressed. For as long as she had been part of the army, Mina had never seen the General even acknowledge her existence, but she preferred it that way.

"Yes, sir," said the tired man, and, with one last glance in Mina's direction, he followed the General. They both were later followed by the party that always followed Endeavour around, mainly his secretary and a group of other officers. As they passed her, Mina eased up, tension leaving her. She knew that the General would be out of the base during the mission, and they had been lucky he wasn't there for the meeting. If he had been there, Momo would have had it much, much worse. If rumors were to be trusted, he had been in a summit with Generals from a couple of neighbor countries, most likely discussing strategies or the sharing of resources in the current war. That meant he wasn't there to hear about the mission's total failure, and wasn't there to berate Momo about it, she thought as the group walked down the corridor, when the sight of a unique hair color made a bulb turn on in her mind. A half-white half-red colored hair that belonged to someone that could help her find out about Midoriya.

"Hey, Shoto!" she shouted with a grin in her face, and run towards the teen, who turned around to watch who had called him. He looked cute, Mina thought, with his hair combed and his uniform completely tidied up, in contrast with how he usually used his jacket as some sort of cape. His scar on the side of his face gave him a hardened appearance, like he was always fresh out of battle. Ladies would swoon over him. She would have to up her game. When she reached him, she placed her feet together, and joined her hands around her back, trying for her cutest pose.

"Ashido. What's up?" he said with a cold tone anyone could have took as disinterest. But Mina and her friends knew better. The guy was just awkward.

"I need a favor" she chanted, with a smile and closed eyes. She then opened them and brought her index finger to her cheek. "Would you do something for little me?"

Shoto's stoic expression didn't changed, making Mina thought that she had failed. She knew that Shoto could be awkward, but at least he could say something. His personality could be really cold some times.

"Sure, what you need?" he finally said, making Mina's eyes open in surprise and her mouth open in a smile. She started skipping on her place, which made Shoto looked at her with a raised eyebrow. What was her deal? He was close to turning himself around and leaving her skipping in her happiness when Mina jumped towards him, grabbed his arm, pull it to her torso so that it was close to her chest, and looked at him directly with her unique eyes.

"Something only my favorite Brigadier can help me with" she said with absolute happiness in her eyes, as she pulled him in the direction of the medical center, taking personal note of his blush provoked by his contact with the girl. She knew Shoto was not interested, but that didn't meant she could not mess with him a bit. What are friends for, after all? "I will tell you all about it on the way there!"

. . . . . . .

As Mina walked away with Shoto, they didn't realize they were being watched by the group of girls Mina had left behind. Uraraka didn't know what to think. Why she was talking with the Brigadier was anyone's guess, Mina had been somewhat quiet after the mission had ended. Maybe she liked him? She had always being somewhat vocal in her opinions of him, but was she ignoring that most likely, Shoto was just being oblivious to her flirting? The girl's antics could sometimes be a complete mystery.

"Well there goes that cutie" laughed Mei, trying to ease tension. Both Uraraka and Yaoyorozu turned around to watch at their sniper, who was still fidgeting with whatever device she was creating, it starting to take the form of a small helicopter. Mei, although her main quirk allowed her to look long distances with zooming from her eyes, was also a level of technologic genius, being responsible for most weapons their team used. Mina's Acid Gun was just an example of her level of talent.

"You think Mina could be interested?" asked Yaoyorozu, folding her arms, emotionally drained from the meeting. Right now, she had no strength to try and hypothesize what her pink friend could be thinking.

"You girls know her better than I do. Your guess is as good as mine" laughed Mei, opening her jacket to reveal a corduroy top that showed a more-than-normally-appropriate portion of cleavage, making Uraraka blush a bit from awkwardness. She didn't handle that kind of attire very well.

"Oh! And there comes yours, Gravity girl!" she pointed, making Uraraka turn around to see another figure stomping the ground as he walked, his yellow hair being messy as always and his red eyes looking directly at her as he pushed people out of his way. Great. _Now_ he was here.

"Ochako!" shouted Bakugo as he nearly ran up to her. He put his hands on her shoulders and examined her for any sign of lasting damage. "Are you alright?"

"Well, ignored by the hot head, isn't that new" Mei sighed, putting an arm around Yaoyorozu and pulling her away from the pair. "We will let you love birds talk, maybe you can stop him from doing this shit again and leaving us alone."

"Fuck you, techno-freak!" shouted Bakugo, receiving a middle-finger from Mei. In other times, that would have made Uraraka chuckle. Today, however, she wasn't feeling like it.

"Bakugo" she said with a somber tone, surprising him, as she was the only one who referred to him by his first name, which she wasn't doing this time. Uraraka's hair fell over her face, covering her eyes, and her smile was gone. "I have something to say to y-you," she said, her voice nearly failing her at the end of the sentence. Bakugo looked at her with open eyes. Scanning his surroundings, and realizing they weren't been heard, he nodded with his head "What the fuck is it?" he asked. What was going through her head?

"I…" she didn't know how to start. _Where_ to start? The mission? His disappearance hours before deployment? Or what had been bugging her mind from even before the Midoriya kid even showed up?

"Where the fuck where you?" she asked, looking at him with teary eyes. She had chosen those words, words that he used, to try to get the message through. How mad she was. How she was mad at him.

"Does it fucking matter?" he asked, letting go of her shoulders and crossing his arms over his chest. "I thought the mission was a fucking simple one. I thought you out of all people would get it fucking done with no problem."

"You thought…?" repeated Uraraka, not able to believe what she was hearing. That was the reason he had run away on a fit of anger? Because he thought everything would go all right? This was a fucking war, goddammit! Not some training exercise! "I was shot in the fucking leg, Bakugo! We nearly died over there! Everything we knew about the mission was wrong, and it almost got us killed!"

"But you're all right, aren't you?!" shouted Bakugo, incredulous they were even having this conversation. "You are already here! And you three are walking like nothing had happened!"

"But not thanks to you, you idiot!" shouted an enraged Uraraka, not believing how detached he was acting. How he was acting like the exact type of asshole her friends had always described him as. She knew they weren't exactly boyfriend and girlfriend, but they had shared moments together! They had kissed! And now he was acting like her almost dying was ok?! "You think you're so strong-"

"Well I am!" interrupted Bakugo, making her stop her shouting. "And so are you! Your quirk is one of the strongest ones here, and you are going to tell me you couldn't handle a single fucking mission? You're going to ask me to cry for you? You are supposed to be better than this!"

"What, this quirk?!" she shouted with tears in her eyes, putting her palm between them and pointing to the pads she had on her fingers. "This quirk that I trained so I could be as powerful as you? This augmented quirk, with all the pain that took? An augmentation I let you convince me of? Oh, yeah, it's powerful! So is supposed to be yours! But how much good has it done to you? Any power is worthless if you are not there to help the people you care about! Or is it that you don't care about me?"

"And what if I do or don't? You shouldn't care! You should stop acting so weak and accept the power you now have!" shouted Bakugo, raising a finger at pointing accusatorily at Uraraka "You have the power! So don't act like you need anyone!"

"Then maybe I don't need you, is that what you are saying?!" shouted Uraraka, slapping Bakugo's hand away from her, making sure one of her pads touched it and activating her quirk, incrementing the gravity pull of his hand. Bakugo felt to the floor, pinned down, and tried to lift it up with no success. Uraraka watched him struggle for a bit, cursing at everything, until her anger at him faded away, leaving her only with a feeling of emptiness. And she couldn't take it anymore.

"Goodbye, Bakugo. We are over"

And with that, she turned around, putting her hands over her ears to stop hearing the cursing her now ex-flame sputtered to every direction, her tears running down her cheeks and falling from her chin. She just wanted to be out of there. She just wanted to be alone.

As he saw her walk away, Bakugo finally stopped shouting once his hand returned to its normal weight, free from Uraraka's power. His blood restarted its normal flow through his arm, generating the pain that follows a numbing sensation. Massaging it to ease the pain away, Bakugo kept glancing in the direction Uraraka had walked away. Maybe, deep down, a part of him hoped she came back and told him things were all right? Maybe he had more to say, or he felt she had more to say?

Feeling anger threatening to explode inside of him, Bakugo picked himself up, straightened out his pants, and, with a furious glare in his face, started to walk in the opposite direction Uraraka had gone. No. He didn't need her. He didn't need anyone. Right now, the only thing he needed was to go to the training gym, and blow some shit up.

. . . . . . .

"Where are you taking us, doc?" asked Shoto as they followed the doctor through another hall full of individuals in lab coats, a bit annoyed at how he had done everything possible to avoid giving him the full answers. Mina was walking behind them Shoto, looking everywhere. She rarely had come here. Hell, she wasn't even authorized unless in company of personnel with higher clearance. But well, there was Shoto, so it all had to be good, right?

When Mina had told Shoto everything, he had accepted to use his rank to get some answers. No scientist in the facility could deny an order from a Colonel like Aizawa, and Shoto, being a Brigadier, was on top of him, ranking-wise. He should be more than able to get the full picture. But he also found it strange. Was Midoriya another augmented? Why had he never heard of it, even if he spent most of his time following his father around? General Todoroki was one of the most important officers in the army, and it would be only natural if he knew about the green haired boy Ashido talked about. But no word had ever been said about him, and, with the power Mina described, it was something truly suspicious. Enji Todoroki always had the most powerful quirked individuals under surveillance, to see how better to use his favorite weapons. Bakugo, Iida, himself… all pieces in his father's strategy.

When they had finally found the doctor who Ashido claimed had taken Midoriya away, he had tried to go away, excusing himself. Shoto had to give an order for him to stay and answer their questions. He hated giving orders outside of battle, it made him feel like his father, and he despised that. But Ashido had asked him to help her find the truth, and he always tried to help his comrades. However, getting answers from the doctor had proved to be hard. Who is Izuku Midoriya? He didn't know. What was the reason he was here? He didn't know. Why had he pulled him from the group? Because he was order to take him to heal. On who's order? Colonel Aizawa. Where had he taken him?

That last question was the reason they had kept walking behind the doctor the last 15 minutes. He had only agreed to take them there. They had gone deeper and deeper into the facility's area dedicated to science, quirk studies and weapons development. They had passed hundreds of personnel in white lab coats, tables and carts full of disassembled machinery, and more than one caged animal. Mina nearly screamed when she passed a glass panel and, from the other side, a gorilla had hit it with enough force to make it tremble. However, the gorilla wasn't normal. Instead of fur, he had fire, and he looked directly at Mina with completely blue eyes, as if recognizing her because of her pink skin and horns as someone with the same condition. He was a fire gorilla. An animal with possession of a quirk.

Mina had needed a whole minute to get her thoughts together after that interaction. A hundred questions wondered her mind. How? How had the gorilla developed a quirk? It was supposed to be a human trait, and a rare one. Yes, quirked individuals were guaranteed to have quirked offspring, but that animal made no sense. Either he had been born with one, changing everything they knew of quirks…

Or he had been given one. And the thought scared her much more.

If quirked individuals could be created, then what would that make her? She would become far less special. The army wouldn't need her to go into missions, and she would most likely be sent to the front with her friends. And the thought scared her. She had heard of tons and tons of quirked individuals dying in the fronts. Some of the quirked individuals died in glorious combat, and where given full honors for them and their families. Some of them died in less than glorious ways. But Mina didn't cared. She didn't care about honors or medals. She just wanted to _stay alive_.

"We are here."

They had reached what looked like the door of a elevator. The doctor had turned around and was looking for something on his coat, taking out keys, pens and even his wallet, until his face revealed he had found what he was looking for: a pin.

"Now what?" asked Shoto, examining the door and how it lacked any button or way to open them.

"You, girl, you have to wear this," he said giving the pin to Mina, who hold it between his index and thumb and examined it. It was a normal metal pin, with a red light in the center. "Put it on your clothing and it will give you access, so that the elevator works while you're inside. And, sir, given your rank and the fact that you're in uniform, you wouldn't have a problem. Your identity chip on your rank badge would suffice," he said as he pushed what he had taken out deep into his pockets. After he had finished, he addressed the pair of soldiers in front of him "That pin was the only thing that gave me any way to use this elevator. If anyone asks, I will tell them the truth: That it's now with you and that I gave it to you under Brigadier Todoroki's orders." Through the corner of her eye, Mina could saw Shoto wince at being called by his surname. He hated that. That was the main reason every one of his friends addressed him by his name. "I didn't understand what was down there, so I can't explain what you will find, but you should be safe, Brigadier" he said, offering a handshake to Shoto, who, after a couple of seconds of silent, finally took it.

"You'll need anything else, Brigadier?"

"Yes. What's up with the gorilla?" asked Mina, wanting to know the truth about the weird being she had seen.

The doctor turned to look at her, an expression on his face that made it quite clear he had addressed Shoto. "That's one of the only documented animals that have been found to develop a quirk. We are examining him to see what made him develop it while being a non-human, if it was his primate nature or if it was a genetic mutation" he said, his tone indicating how he believed Mina would not understand, but Mina did, and it lift some worries from her back. Her fears on that subject were not true. With that, the doctor nodded with this head in Shoto's direction and walked away, just for a moment before he started running away from them, or, Mina thought, away from the elevator. What were they going to found down there?

"So… after you, my favorite Brigadier," said Mina with a nervous smile, bowing in an exaggerated manner and motioning Shoto to take the first step into the elevator.

. . . . . . .

A whole minute of the elevator descending in complete silence, they finally reached their floor. The elevator at this moment had long gone underground. Mina knew there were underground levels in the base, but this took it a bit too far. One elevator, which only served as the connection between the floor they had got in, and the one in which they would supposedly find Izuku Midoriya. Mina could feel a drop of sweat running from her forehead. Cold sweat. That was the way her body had to tell her of the possibility of near danger. The first indication of a involuntary fight or flight response. But why? Was she in danger from Izuku Midoriya? It couldn't be that, he had saved her. And she was here to find him, maybe even thank him… No, it wasn't that. Her eyes wondered and she took a glance at Shoto's hands, clenched in a fist. He was thinking the same thing as her. He was thinking 'This seems too much for only one guy'.

As the doors slide open, they uncovered another hallway, no different from the ones back over ground. It was lacking windows and was illuminated by light bulbs on the roof. However, it did had an important feature: Doors, all located on the right side of the hallway, each at a big distance from each other and with a small window to look inside, and each with a document hanging by its side, prepared to be read by anyone who thought about going inside.

"Well this is weird" muttered Shoto, taking Mina out of her thoughts. He then proceeded to walk to the nearest door, leaving the pink girl behind. He grabbed the document and started flipping its pages, while Mina reached up to him and looked inside through the window. He room was weird, all right. It looked like it was taken straight out of an insane asylum. Every wall of the white room was cushioned, as well as the floor. The lighting in the room was minimal, which at first glance made Mina miss the room's occupant. It was a single girl, small in size, sat against the wall, wearing a strait-jacket and a muzzle that stopped Mina from seeing a big part of her face. Her hair was tied up in 2 bows, with a couple of strands falling over. The sight of her sent a shiver down Mina's spine.

"Himiko Toga" said Shoto out loud, and Mina turned her head to see that he was reading the files. "Female, 15 years old. Huh… she's a year younger than us" he commented. Mina could see that. Even in her condition, she looked quite young. "Quirk: Transform. By ingesting the blood of a person, she can transform her appearance into that of said person. The amount of blood directly correlates to the time of transformation. The files say she used to be part of the army; she had the job of infiltration behind enemy lines, to steal documents, spy and create chaos, and then to pull back. It also has a complete record of all the dates of her missions, even if not the places… but it says here that after her last mission, that lasted 20 days, she returned to a base near the frontlines and disappearances started. Some soldiers were found dead and the evidence pointed towards different… officers…" Mina was holding her breath. She knew that story. Shoto did too. It was too close to them. But it had been _her_?! A girl, even younger than them, had been responsible for one the one of their friend's greatest lose? "A soldier, name erased, followed the clues after being personally involved in the matter by the evidence pointing towards a fellow, and he found the suspects inside Toga's tent, been drained of their blood and long dead. He managed to subdue Toga and bring her to the authorities. He was promoted." Shoto closed the file, his hands trembling, and look at Mina, who was watching him with horror in her eyes.

"Tenya" she muttered. The soldier that had defeated Himiko Toga had been their friend, Tenya Iida. He had been forbidden to say names involved by his superiors, and he had followed that order, but after months of going to therapy and repressed rage, he had open, at least to tell them what had happen. One of the officers that were under suspicion had been his own brother, Tensei Iida, who had also disappeared afterwards, only making the accusations against him more plausible. Tenya had followed the clues and found his brother's corpse, still opened, still fresh, with Toga harvesting it for its blood. He had nearly killed Toga if he hadn't been stopped. He had never known what had happened to her after she was arrested.

And now Mina and Shoto knew. She was here. And if a monster like Toga was here, most likely other monsters were contained behind the other doors.

And Izuku Midoriya could be one of them.

Walking to the next door, Mina grabbed the file, glancing at the first page. Shigaraki Tomura. Looking inside, Mina could see a tall, thin man with white long hair, in a straitjacket similar to Toga's. He was huddled at the corner, his legs trying to cover his face. She then proceeded to read the file. Quirk: Decay. Anything he touches with all five fingers would start to crumble to dust. Apparently the guy had been a simple soldier, until he had become mentally unstable and had targeted his own comrades, for no apparent reason other than just for the sake of it. He had been taken out by General Yagi himself, and, apparently, had developed a grudge according to psychological evaluations. Mina looked at the guy one more time. He hadn't noticed her; apparently the glass was only one-way. He was still trying to cover his face with his legs, contorting in weird ways. Mina couldn't stop herself from feel sickened by these individuals.

"Where is Midoriya?" she asked Shoto, hoping to receive a concrete answer. Shoto had been reading the file over her shoulder, and, in response to the question, pointed ahead of them. There still were some rooms.

Now Mina had no desire of knowing anything about this people. She only grabbed the files to glance at the name, and dropped them as fast as she realized they weren't who she was looking for. Jin Bubaigawara. Shuichi Iguchi. Atsuhiro Sako. Kenji Hikiishi. And some of them, for some reason, only had codenames: Muscular, Moonfish. Mina didn't even glance at the window on their doors. She had no interest in them. She was walking so fast paced, that she nearly started missing some of the files. That was, until she found what she was looking for.

Izuku Midoriya. And a door with no window.

"He's here, Shoto" said Mina, turning around to see her friend reaching her, eyes open in surprise. She was trembling in anticipation. What did all of this mean? Was him being here, amongst this monsters, a testament to his own nature? Nothing out of his interaction with her had given her a reason to think that he could be found down here. These guys were cruel, crazy, even sadistic. And he couldn't be far from it. He was sweet, caring and somewhat heroic. So what was he even doing here?

"Read all of it" said Shoto with a stern voice. His combat voice. He was acting like his rank dictated. He was prepared to fight to defend himself and Mina if Midoriya was anything like these crazies. So he needed every bit of information he could get.

Opening the file, Mina started reading it for both of them. "Izuku Midoriya. Male. 16 years old. What…" Mina had to stop reading right there. A single piece of data that took her attention. July 15. Apparently they shared birthday.

"Mina…" said Shoto, making her continue.

"Right, sorry. Birthday, July 15. Quirk: Strength Enhancement level Delta, possibly Omega" Omega… That was General Yagi's level. "There's also the extra info that states that he tends to suffer mayor damage after using it. He did break his arm back when we met him. The file says that he was found in an enemy facility as a prisoner after the nation lost territory. He was taken as a war prisoner along with his mother, name erased, and other members of his town, and was found after they regained the lands. Multiple quirk suppression measures were been taken to keep him imprisoned, and, during the escape, they failed. He alone caused the death of multiple enemy and allied forces. His mother also died during the escape." Mina couldn't believe it. The guy had been even had a mother before the war had taken all of it away. But he also had killed their soldiers, for some reason. What was this guy? "Psychological analysis on the subject tells he suffers from PTSD, triggered when seeing firearms. He tends to attack the user. That… does explain some things." Like why he attacked the enemy soldiers and why he didn't had any problem approaching them. At the moment, none of them were holding to any firearms.

"So?" asked Shoto. Mina looked at him. His face was as stern as always, but there was something more. He was ready. At this moment, all of her instincts told her she was surrounded by very dangerous people, but there was something she had forgotten: Shoto could be even more dangerous than most and he was on her side.

"Nothing. We go inside" said Mina, her hand finding the door's handle. She needed to know. However, she realized there was another feeling in her: doubt. She had gotten there somewhat sure about who Midoriya could be, but nearly all she'd seen had hinted at her being wrong. What was it? Should she believe her instinct that told her Midoriya could mean danger, or should she go for her impression of him? She had to know, so she chose the latter.

And with that thought, Mina turned the handle, producing the sounds of the door's mechanism unlocking, and pushed, opening it.

. . . . . . .

 **This chapter was written during free time while I'm supposed to be studying for my finals jajaja so it has been a good stress reliever. Hope you liked it. Yeah, cliffhangers and all that stuff, personally don't like them, but thought it was a good way to end this chapter.**

 **So, like always, thanks a lot for reading! Leave a review! The feedback does help a lot. Look for me on Tumblr! And wear your seatbelts! PLUS ULTRA!**


	3. So much to say, so little time?

**Codename: Quirk – Designation: Weapon**

 **Chapter 3: So much to say, so little time?**

 **Sorry for the long period between chapters. A lot of drama on my everyday life and this chapter was difficult to write as well (for those who don't know, I'm a Spanish speaker. English is a foreign language).**

 **In this chapter, I address a scenario where trauma is involved. In case someone thinks i don't do it justice, my deepest apologies. Please don't let that impair your enjoyment of the story.**

 **So let's get right into it, shall we?**

. . . . . . .

A hand on the handle and another one against the door, Mina pushed. As the door opened, a dozen thoughts passed by Mina's mind. She felt the world was suddenly in slow-motion. She could hear the sound of metal scraping against metal, as the door hinges turned. Was she going to find Izuku Midoriya in a strait-jacket, like Shimura or Toga? Was he insane, maybe deranged, in the same way as the people who lived a couple of meters from his room? A crack of bright light escaped the room. How had he ended in the battlefield? How did Colonel Aizawa connect to him? The door started revealing the room inside, and Mina holds her breath in anticipation.

What was she going to find?

As her eyes scanned the room, she had every prior expectation refuted.

The room was completely white, meaning white walls, floor and roof. It was twice the size of the room where Mina had previously seen Shigaraki and Toga been kept. It was also spotless, with no sign of dirt or stain anywhere Mina could see. The surfaces were polished concrete, nothing like the asylum-like rooms she had seen from the hallway. And it wasn't empty either. Mina was surprised, but the room not only had a bed, but also a shelf full of books, a desk with more books in it, a TV hanging from the wall in its racket, and a lot of exercising equipment. Dumbbells, a mat, countless weights… it reminded her of her training days, except most weights were so heavy she would have a hard time raising them even now. It was a normal room.

Or at least a room that had enough to maintain one entertained if he was never to leave it, as was the case.

And sitting on the bed, only dressed in sport pants, with his back towards them, a dumbbell on one hand and a book on the other… was Izuku Midoriya.

Mina couldn't believe it. Why? Why was he here if he was going to be kept like this? How had they kept him a secret all this time? She was shocked to see this guy. She could see his bare back; muscular under all the scars, the scar that she remembered ran through the middle of his torso could be seen running over his left trapezius. He was here, and he appeared to be a normal teen boy. She had been so prepared to find a madman, or a prisoner, that this left her with no words…

"Ehem," Shoto cleared his throat, making Mina jump out of her thoughts, reminding her that he was also there, and making Midoriya lift his head and leave the dumbbell on his bed, now aware that he had visitors.

As Midoriya turned around, Mina could see some details on his expression. At first, he was genuinely curious about who had visited him. Then, he was surprised, a shocked look passing through his face at seeing Shoto, still in Brigadier uniform, here in his room, but it started turning into a smile when Mina's eyes met his. It was at that moment he completely turned around, happiness starting to fill his eyes, a happiness that warmed Mina. Happiness…

Happiness that went away as fast as it had come, when the green-haired teen realized he wasn't wearing a shirt in the presence of a girl. His eyes went wide with shock and his face started to go red and glowing as he stood still, frozen.

Mina found that really funny. As Midoriya regained movement capacity, mumbled and start looking for a shirt, she covered her mouth, trying to hide her smile and muffle her laughter. It was hard to believe this level of shyness could come from the guy. It was both ridiculous and amusing. He ended up fighting against a white shirt he picked up; making exaggerated gestures until it finally was in place.

"So… of everything that I wasn't expecting to see… this is something," she said, still trying to suppress her laugh, to Shoto, who was examining the individual in front of them from head to feet.

"This is the guy you said saved all of you?" it was less of a question and much more… doubt, of Mina's claims. Mina couldn't blame him. With his shirt on, Midoriya didn't look the part, to be honest, or at least he currently didn't.

"My name is Izuku Midoriya" he said, as he shyly approached Shoto for a handshake. For a couple seconds, one could say Shoto had left him hanging in the air. But Mina knew better. The officer was doing as they were all trained: analyzing everything like a battlefield.

When Midoriya's expression seemed to fail, and his hand started to drop, Shoto raised his and gripped it in a firm handshake. "My name is Shoto."

And with that handshake, Mina knew she had just witnessed the meeting of two weapons of mass destruction. Midoriya's power, although still unknown, had been of a caliber close to Shoto's own. And Shoto was no joke. Mina had seen him through his first phases of training, all the way to recordings of his current battles. The guy was a beast, able to lay waist on entire battalions by himself.

Turning to watch her, Izuku started to blush while a smile crept on his face, adding with a softer voice: "I'm so glad you're ok. Are the others ok as well? Are any of you hurt? I sometimes have a hard time controlling the power, and if I hurt anyone of you-" he continued a fierce, rapid-fire apology that made both of the guests take a step back. Mina could only stare at him with open eyes, mouth open in surprise. He WAS that selfless. Just… HOW?

"Oh! Emm… thank you. We are all fine thanks to you." answered Mina, trying to calm him down. She internally cursed herself. She was losing time. There were questions that had to be answered! Looking through the corner of her eyes, she met Shoto's. 'Help me,' she thought.

Catching the message, Shoto addressed the green haired teen. "Midoriya, we would like you to answer some questions. We would appreciate if you wouldn't lie" said Shoto in his most imposing tone, taking a step towards him, both hands on his pockets.

"Y-yes, yes, I will answer" said Midoriya, taking his eyes away from Mina and addressing Shoto.

"Thank you. Can we start from the reason you're here?" Shoto went straight to the point, Mina thought.

"I don't know why I'm here."

"What?" Mina didn't realize she had shouted those words out loud, and, as her hands flew to cover her mouth, both guys turned to look at her, Midoriya's eyes softening a bit.

"I'm sorry, but at least you have any idea where you are?" asked Mina.

"Well, I'm an Eriadu citizen. And the soldiers who rescued me where Eriadu soldiers, so… I would guess I'm in my country, even if I can't pinpoint the location."

'Well at least he isn't that lost,' thought Mina

"But you have no idea why you're being kept here?" asked Shoto.

Midoriya shook his head. "The only time I was let out was when I went to help her and the other girls. A non-quirked officer I had talked before, that went by the name of Aizawa ran here, and asked me if I was willing to help. Of course I was. He blind-folded me and next thing I know I was on a one-man plane going in your direction, without any mean of controlling it."

"You say you talked to him before that. Have you talked with anyone else? What did you talked about?" Mina knew where Shoto was going with this. By finding out who Midoriya had contact with, they could find the reason why he was in here.

Letting out a sigh, Midoriya answered. "I've been interrogated two times since the army took me" said the green-haired teen, addressing both of them. "The first time, I was interrogated by a quirked man, I-I remember him being huge in size, with fire on his face. He tried to get information about my power." Mina looked at Shoto, who nodded. The man Midoriya described was clearly his father. "I was tied up to a chair during the whole interrogatory. It was before I was sent here. The only people present were him, a guy that seemed to be the same age as me, and a couple other soldiers. But only he did the talking. He wanted to know about my parentage. He kept mentioning how my power was similar to someone's. But I didn't recognize the name."

That puzzled both Shoto and Mina. General Todoroki had questioned him because of his power? Why? Yeah, it was powerful, but there was no more to it. Or could there be?

"The second time I was questioned was by Aizawa. It was before he came asking for help. That time was here, in this room, and he was alone. He wanted to know more about me, about my life…"

"Wait" interrupted Shoto, making Midoriya look at him and close his mouth shut "Who did the quirked man compared your quirk to?"

Mina could see the tension clear in Midoriya's hands as he started fidgeting with his own fingers "He mentioned someone called Yagi."

General Toshinori Yagi. Mina had heard that name so many times in her life. The man, even amongst the army, was a legend. He had been a member of the wave of heroes that had surged in response to the rise of criminality that the appearance of quirks had caused. Going by the name All Might, he had rapidly risen to the top in popularity, saving the higher number of people. A lot of people, both locally and internationally, had called him the best hero in the world. Mina had only seen recordings of his feats as a hero, but she could never forget them. Surrounded by fire, debris and villains, he saved people with a smile and such strength he looked like a god amongst mortals. He had truly lived to the best standards that the word hero holds.

And, when he was forced by the situation of the world to join the ranks, he had stuck to his principles. It was there were Mina had met him. Always with a smile on his face when talking to the quirked youth, both to inspire and trying to shield them from the horrors they would eventually face. And, when he was on the battlefield, his presence created an atmosphere that gave everything a sense of calm, hope. He would deal with the enemy troops with a single arm movement, creating enough wind pressure to take care of them without killing anyone, and would battle head first with the quirked individuals in the other side. And he always won. It didn't matter the quirk, it didn't mattered the quirked. When All Might was fighting, he was unstoppable. His fists would hit where they needed. His arms would block attacks in the right way. And he would always rise victorious. He had won so many battles without a single casualty, just by defeating the enemy's quirked soldiers, just by saying "I'm here".

But that had been before his disappearance ten months ago. Before the day he had gone missing during a battle with enemy forces. Countless search parties had been sent to look for him, but none had been successful. The army had done its best to maintain his disappearance a secret from the public, our allies and our enemies. It had led to months filled with uncertainty. Eriadu, their nation, couldn't push the frontiers because it lacked his power. Its allies were asking for questions they could not answer. And their enemies had gone silent, with motives unknown. Their best and brightest could only guess what could be going on there, but Mina had heard rumors: either they were afraid that Eriadu was planning an offensive, or they were planning one.

And now one of their Generals thought that Midoriya had a relation with their missing General? Yes, his power seemed similar, but it made no sense. Unless he was related, but Midoriya had said that the General's name was unknown to him. He could be lying, but there was something in his voice, in his mannerisms, that made Mina… want to trust him.

"How were you there to save us?" asked Mina, with the question coming out in a whisper.

"Mr. Aizawa came running and asked me for help. He said that he needed me to save people he cared about. Although the General's… methods, would have made me reluctant to help, my previous conversation with Mr. Aizawa did showed him as a good man, and tried to help me, although he said his rank would make it difficult. I couldn't refuse if people were going to be killed. I had to save them." He said, looking down at his hands, as if they were ready to grab everyone who needed help and pull them away from danger.

Mina couldn't believe it. But… it was real. "All Might would have liked to meet you, Midoriya" she chuckled, not really addressing the guy but saying it out loud either way. That type of thinking… it was so similar to what the General had always stood for: fight not to win the battle, but to save people, to avoid bloodshed.

"What does All Might have to do?" she heard Midoriya asked her. Well, that was weird.

"All Might? General Yagi? He used to go by that name when he was a hero" said Mina. He didn't know?

"Wait, so are you saying…" Midoriya started talking when he was interrupted by Todoroki, who put his hand over his mouth and with the other motioned Mina to not talk. Silence fell over the room, and Todoroki's eyes focused on the door.

"There are people outside" he said, pointing to Mina to walk to the door. As she followed her superior's order, she tried to control her heart rate. They had been found. Todoroki was going to be ok, but he would have to pull a lot of strings to be able to get her out of this mess. They had talked about it. But a part of her hoped the doctor would remain quiet. It must have been the General. He must be searching for Todoroki when he discovered they were here.

As she closed to the door and the sound of movement filtered into the room, she started to count, trying to control her head. One. Inhale, exhale. She reached for the door. Two. Inhale, exhale. Three-

Before Mina reached the door, it flew open, hitting her hand, sending pain through her arm. Mina felt the adrenaline kick in, a familiar sensation that made time go slower. She hoped her hand wasn't broken. Some soldiers went inside the room, one of them placing a hand on her as he pointed his gun directly at her. The other one was raising his weapon, pointing to the inside of the room. More soldiers were waiting. They had fucked up.

Turning her neck, Mina could see it all as if it was frozen in a single frame. The soldier was pointing and shouting something she couldn't hear. The one that had placed a hand on her was pushing her off her feet with a lot of brute force, but for some reason her brain didn't register the pain. A second pair of soldiers was taking their first step into the room. But that didn't mattered. What mattered was what Midoriya was doing.

His face had gone white as paper, and he had a blank stare. His whole body was trembling, and, even with the rush of adrenaline that made the world go slower, Mina could see Izuku moving, raising his fist. Sparks of green electricity started flying around him, and his skin started glowing while red lines ran through his body. But Mina knew what that blank stare meant: trauma. His record had mentioned an involuntary response against fire weapons wielders. He wasn't conscious. He wasn't going to hold on. If he attacked, he was going to destroy the whole floor, with everyone present, she included.

Mina couldn't believe the irony of the situation. She came back from a mission where she had been close to death in at least two occasions, the last one being saved by someone, and she was now going to die because of that someone. She hated those soldiers. Why didn't they read the file? Why didn't they know better than to point their weapons at the guy that could kill them without been able to control himself?

Her eyes then shifted to Todoroki. The two of them hadn't been so close, but he hadn't cared and had helped her get here. It wasn't his fault. He deserved better, not the horrible life he lived as his father's weapon.

But he found him moving. Even faster than Midoriya, his movements were precise and decided. He had turned so that his right side was in Midoriya's direction, and Mina could see frost coming out from the place his foot met the ground, reaching towards Midoriya. But his hands were other story. They were pointing at Mina and the soldiers. Both of them were. He couldn't be thinking of attacking them, right?

With a single movement of his right hand, Todoroki took away all heat from the room. And in the same second, his right hand generated a white hot flame, making the cold air expand and blowing Mina and the soldiers out of the room by the door. Mina hit the corridor's wall hard, cushioned only by the soldiers that had hit it even harder. As her body started to process the pain, she raised her sight, and watched the result of Todoroki's strategy: as the door closed because of wind pressure, she could see the frozen interior, and a frozen Midoriya. He had stopped him. He had saved them. As he turned to look at Mina to see if she was ok, Mina couldn't thank him before the door shut close, and the frost appeared around it, showing that it was locked and only he could open it.

As Mina pulled herself up, the group of soldiers that had stayed in the corridor turned to look at her. A couple of them approached from behind and take hold of her arms, restricting her. Some came directly at her, one preparing some handcuffs. Mina started to struggle, trying to get free, but the more she struggled the more soldiers appeared to close on her. More and more until she had so little room to struggle, she was filling suffocated. She needed space. She wanted to get free.

"Hey, Ashido!" a voice called to her from his side. The only voice that referred to her amongst all the shouting.

"WHAT?!" she shouted, turning around.

And what she saw was a hand in front of her face. A pale hand, covered in purple veins that ran up the arm, reaching out to grab her. Its owner pushed the soldiers making his way between them, and looked past them directly at her.

"Sleep" ordered the teenager.

And Mina felt herself falling. She no longer could feel the presence of the other soldiers. She no longer knew where she was. She just felt herself falling into the dark of unconsciousness, with just a single thought in her mind:

'Fuck.'

. . . . . . .

"I… I really think he never cared, Momo" said Ochako, tears rolling down her cheeks, making a small puddle on the ground. "And I was so stupid, I actually thought he did."

The two girls were sitting down on Ochako's bed, in her room. As soon as Ochako knew that Bakugo wasn't able to see her, she had ran, tears flowing like waterfalls from her eyes. She had run until she found herself alone in her room, and just then had called her friends. Only Momo had been able to come, as Mei had been called to the Weapons Development Lab. She had said she would come as soon as possible, but knowing the lab personnel, that could be fast or an eternity later.

Momo didn't know what to say. Her friend was in a situation she hadn't ever experienced. How did people deal with breakup? How did a friend help other friends deal with breakup? She just sat there, giving uncomfortable pats on her friend's back while she cried all she had, with Momo constantly creating handkerchiefs for her to use. She had been crying for half an hour at this point.

"Maybe it's something I said? Maybe I wasn't strong enough?" Ochako asked herself out loud, only for her and Momo to hear.

"No, it's not that… Ochako, of course it wasn't you" said Momo as she pulled another handkerchief from her leg.

"Then it was him? He always treats everyone like shit… It was only a matter of time before."

"It's ok, Ochako, it its-"

"NO, IT ISN'T!" screamed Ochako as she stood up, making Momo jump and fall from the bed. Ochako wasn't exactly looking at her, though. Her anger was directed somewhere else. "The bastard only used me for his own gain! He never cared! And I put so much on the line to be at his side! I hate him!" She then placed her hand on her bed, touching it with her finger pads and with pure anger in her eyes pointed downwards. In less than a second, the bed had collapsed under its own weight, becoming nothing more than dust and the remains of the mattress.

Momo just sat there; watching her friend look at the debris of the former piece of furniture with so much hatred it was terrifying. In many ways, Bakugo had changed her. She had never been this fired up about anything before they started talking, and the guy's attitude had clearly rubbed off on her. She had become more driven to be stronger, to the point she volunteered for Augmentation, and it was all for the guy.

"What did I missed?" shouted Mei as the door sprang open and she came inside, wide-eyed at the sight of Momo sitting in the ground, Ochako standing there and what used to be a piece of furniture. "Uraraka, did you just… did you just destroyed your bed?" she asked as she ran to Momo and helped her up, not getting anywhere near Ochako at the moment.

"I-I… I just…" Ochako's broken voice made Mei turn around and see her friend's tears fall into the ground, and her legs giving up, sitting there in tears. Both girls ran to her friend, Momo hugging her tightly and Mei putting a hand on her shoulder. She wasn't Ashido. Ashido was much better at this than her. But she had to try something, right? "I just… I cared for him. I…"

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Mei couldn't take it anymore. She needed to say something. "We know, Uraraka, we know. Hey, how about you both come to see my new babies? Something to take your mind out of this mess." Mei's proposal was met with confused looks by both girls. "What?" asked the pink-haired inventor in confusion.

Only then did Uraraka let out a small laugh. Their friend could be so awkward at times, but still, she meant well. Nodding, she was helped to her feet by her friends. Enough crying. Enough weakness. She had to be strong, but not for a guy, but for herself.

. . . . . . .

Mina sighed, crossing her arms and leaning back on the chair she was sitting. She was pissed, not two ways around it. She had found herself in a pink space, with the only available ground being a chunk of land 10 meters in diameter. She remembered the first time she had ever been held in this space. She had been desperate to the point of tears, thinking she had died and that this was what eternity had in store for her. Yeah, this wasn't her first time here, which only made her more pissed about the fact that she was back, and that she was still being held here.

She was mad at her captor, who was sitting in a chair, at 5 meters in front of her. Easily recognizable from that distance, with his distinct purple hair, pale skin and the purple veins that run through all his body. Hitoshi Shinzo.

"Are we there yet?" asked Mina, shouting the question for what felt like the hundredth time.

Shinso rolled his eyes. He didn't particularly dislike the pink girl, but he found her slightly difficult to have a conversation with. She tended to be impatient, too direct and not exactly cared for any form of formalities. "No, Ashido, we are not there yet." At that moment, Shinso was splitting his focus on talking with Ashido in the mental space he had created, and actually controlling his own body back in the tangible world. The last thing he needed was to get annoyed by dealing with those clichéd questions. "So please, either don't speak or change the subject. We will get to General Endeavour when we get there."

So… was that a free pass to ask anything? She could try to get information of him, right? They had known each other for a long time; he was part of her group back when they were still training to be soldiers. They hadn't exactly been friends, but Mina had tried to be as friendly with him as she had been with everyone else, even after learning the nature of his power: Brainwashing. It was quirk that allowed its user to be able to assume control of its target actions by having a word exchange; powerful, even if a bit creepy, but they had learned to accept its wielder as one of their own. He had trained to use it in a pacifist manner, to help with evacuation processes. That had been, of course, before it got attention from General Endeavour, who took Shinso in a path that made Mina's seem like a dream.

Shinso didn't always had sport the purple veins all over his body. That was a small side effect of the Quirk Augmentation surgery, a process that, years after its creation, was still in experimental phase. It was based on a drug that had appeared 5 years after the surge of quirks. The drug enhanced all parts of a user's quirk, both the mutation and the quirk factor. But it was temporary. Even after the army had tried to weaponize it, usage of it drained the quirked individual of all his remaining energy, leaving him an open target. It had been deemed a last resource, until scientists had come with an alternative: the Quirk Augmentation surgery, which would allow a quirked soldier to access the power of the drug without the after effects.

He had been one of the first subjects, and an involuntary one. The General had used him both to test the procedure and because of the power it would give the army and him as his commander. Mina and her friends had been so happy once they knew he was alive, if only left with the purple veins that were now visible. Most of the other subjects hadn't been so lucky.

That was, until they had tested the results. To say that it was an augmentation was selling it short. Shinso's conditions for exerting control over his subjects had been expanded. Now he could do it with as much as a touch, or seeing someone eye to eye. And it hadn't stopped there. Brainwashing wasn't everything he could do. He could access someone's mind, control it, and have mental conversations with anyone. He had become a full-fledged Telepath.

After those discoveries, he had been taken to work directly under General Todoroki, being sent to make his errands and accompanying him in every diplomatic talk, military mission and secret meeting. He had become his personal weapon, as much as Shoto was. It was an existence Mina only knew from what Shoto had told them. It was violent, and eternally stained your hands with blood. No regard to them as individuals. And due to that, Mina couldn't help but wonder:

Did Shinso sometimes desire that the procedure had gone wrong?

"Shinso…" Mina started, addressing him.

"Huh?" Shinso looked directly at her. "What, Ashido?"

Taking a breath, Mina tried to user her more neutral tone while asking: "What was that underground floor for? What is the point of keeping those crazies in there?"

"What makes you think I know anything?" asked Shinso, with a near perfect poker face.

Mina, however, didn't fell for it. She already knew she was going to get that answer. "Because you were sent there, which means that either the General trusts in you, or you've been there already, and we both know he trusts no one."

A smile appeared in the purple-haired teen's face, and he started to chuckle. Mina had genuinely surprised him. "Well… to be honest, I don't know the full extent of the General's plans, but I can guess that floor exists… because of me."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I hope you read the files, right?" asked Shinso, to which Mina answered nodding with her head. "Most of them are complete psychos who betrayed us and should have been put down. Some of them are actual powerhouses who went crazy for some reason or other, and are not even from our own country, who we know only by codename. If I had to guess, and I've had enough time to think about it, they are there because the higher ranks hope that I would be able to control them and use them as brainless weapons."

Mina gulped. She knew it to be true. It all made sense. If Shinso trained, he would be able to use any of them as mindless soldiers, and any army would love to have it. But…

"What about Midoriya?" Mina asked.

Shinso looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Who are you talking about?"

"You know… freckles," Mina pointed at her cheeks; "green eyes," she pointed at her own black and yellow ones; "green hair curly like mine?" she started playing with one of her pink curls, holding it between her fingers.

"Oh, the plain looking guy! What, a new boyfriend?" Mina looked at him, clearly annoyed. Shinso mockingly smiled at her, but then returned to his serious, tired expression. "Yeah, I was there when General Todoroki interrogated him. The power that guy holds… It's incredible, but the problem is his clear trauma, as it would make him unfit to participate on missions or combat. I think he intends him to also be controlled, reason why he is down there, though the psychology tests have shown a small chance of him actually been able of overcoming said trauma." Shinso then repositioned himself, sitting in a position more inclined to Mina, and with his change in posture, the whole space of mental reality warped, the space between them getting shorter so that Shinso was now 2 meters in front of Mina. "And I think that is something you have to have in mind for what's coming."

"And what is coming, if you could tell me?" asked Mina, looking her purple-haired acquaintance directly in the eyes.

"Ashido… for what you have just done and discovered, General Todoroki will most likely want your head. Not even Shoto was allowed into the secret before you brought him into it. And we quirked are a resource, but we aren't indispensable. He will find a way, any possible way, to make it seem that what you did was either treason or conspiracy." As he heard him, Mina started sweating. She was in big trouble. "Shoto would most likely try to help you, but he was left behind to deal with Midoriya. I hope he can deal with that quickly. As for me or Colonel Aizawa, neither of us have the rank to talk in your behalf. So, Midoriya is your best choice. From what I saw in your memories, he actually cared for you when he saved you all. You and he have held normal tensionless conversations. And don't give me that look," he added, watching Mina's angry expression and her mouth half opened, ready to shout at him for overstepping boundaries. "I know you don't like me seeing your memories. Nobody does. But I had to if I wanted to find any way of helping you."

"I… We will talk about it later," said Mina, still angry at him. Her memories were her own, dammit.

"Ok, but right now, what we need to focus is in keeping you alive. So, as I said, play Midoriya as a card. Tell the General what he wants to hear. Make yourself be important." Shinso then looked up, as if he was hearing something Mina could not. After all, she was trapped in here until Shinso released her. "We are close" he informed her, as he stood up from his chair and straightened his pants. It was kind of funny to see him act so casual and still try to appear presentable, even if his appearance in Mina's mind wouldn't affect his own in the real world.

"Hey, Shinso… thank you" Mina smiled at the guy. Even if she was angry, she still was grateful for him worrying about her and wanting to help. "But… why?"

Putting his hands on his pockets, Shinso looked upwards and let out a sigh as he closed his eyes. The pink tone of the mental space started to brighten up, shining brighter bit by bit. Shinso then turned to her and looked her, with a tired expression in his eyes. But it wasn't tired of effort, or lack of sleep, or even tired of her, which she had seen a lot of times back during training when she was being silly or made stupid jokes. It was a look that told Mina how tired Shinso was of everything. How there was an inner depression in him, how he really needed help. Mina would have to talk to him after this mess was over, to make sure he was going to be alright.

"Ashido… I…" he looked like he was fighting against the words. "After I was Augmented, I didn't felt regret of it. I saw so many unlucky guys that didn't make it, and I thought ´This is my power now. I can use it as I see fit.' And even if that wasn't true, I would have used it to protect us. You guys where the only people to accept me, even if my power unsettled most of you. My old folks… they were happy they had the choice to throw me away to the military once they realized what my quirk was. But I haven't been able to protect us. So many are far away, so many have been lost… I just want to do what I think its right for once-"

He couldn't finish before Mina covered the distance between them and give him a hug. Yeah, they weren't the closest of friends, but Mina was the kind of person to hug people, either close or acquaintances. "Thank you. Thank you a lot, Shi… Hitoshi" she finished, with a smile on her face. This weird kid had given her a chance. "And I know that if All Might would see you now, he would say that you're a hero."

As the pink shined so brightly it was now white, Mina maintained the embrace, both to thank him and for herself. She was terrified of facing Endeavour. But she knew that, at least, she wasn't doing it alone. "Hey" Shinso added, as the light surrounded them to the point it was hard seeing. "What are friend for?"

Mina heard those words. Friends. He considered them their friends. As the space in her head disappeared as she was freed, Mina let out a happy laugh.

. . . . . . .

Her eyes opened, and Mina scanned her surroundings, dazed. She hated getting out of Shinzo's mind-prisons as much as she hated being in them. It was different than awakening. Her mind felt out of sync with her body. It was still dazed, but her body wasn't. All of her senses were at the maximum, trying to alert a non-responsive brain of what was happening. That all added up so that, when she finally returned, all the information hit her at once. It was a lot to handle, and she never liked it.

But it couldn't be worse than where she was. Sitting in an empty room, tied to a chair, four soldiers at her left, backs against a wall, with the weapons already at hand. At her right, Shinzo, his hand on her head as he released the mind-prison, which he then let fall as he walked away from her. Not even the slightest gesture of acknowledgement, as if their conversation had never happened. Back when they were kids, Mina would have been pissed by this. But she knew better. It was to hide the fact that it happened from the man in front of her.

Still in uniform, with all his badges polished and shining in a myriad of colors, General Enji 'Endeavour' Todoroki stood at nearly 2 meters tall. He was taller than anyone Mina personally knew, his figure casting a shadow that fell upon Mina, as a physical allegory to the level of authority he held over her. He even kept a tangible demonstration of the nature of his quirk and his level of proficiency with it: a beard made of pure fire, which danced over his face and sometimes over his uniform, not doing the slightest damage to it. Mina never knew if that was because of an anti-inflammable material, or just the fact that the General didn't will it to burn his clothes, but either way, what some considered a ridiculous accessory at the distance, was a threat when near it.

At the General's side where some Officers Mina didn't recognized. Did the General wanted to make her sentence official? Maybe he didn't, but he still had to. The General, as much as anyone, was still hold to rules.

Behind the General, Colonel Aizawa stood with an alert expression. That was rarely seen on his face. He tended to have a tired one. Mina didn't know what he was doing there. Was he going to help her? Or was he there only to know how it all went down?

"Quirk-holding Lieutenant Mina Ashido," said Endeavour, with clear disdain to the rank Mina hold. Or well, her Quirk holds. Quirk individuals tended to be given a high enough rank so that they would be cleared for the missions they had to perform. Mina had never escalated any rank in all of her life. If she wasn't quirked, she would be no more than a private. And it is clear the General would have preferred it that way. That way, he could have dispatched her on a mission with no chance of survival and nobody would have made questions.

Or worse: shot in the spot, and nobody would have bothered to look into it.

"You stand here after being found out unaccompanied in a place out-of-bounds for someone with your rank. Such actions could be taken as treason, and are believed to be as such. The punishment for such level of treason would be execution. Anything to say in your defense?" said the General with a booming voice.

Oh, the things Mina could have answered him if half of what he said was true. 'I'm not standing, I'm sitting' to start with. She would have loved to go all-out on insults to this asshole. The things he had put Todoroki, Shinzo and many others through were horrible. How he had wielded his rank had been bad enough before General Yagi's disappearance, but now? The guy held too much power and there was one less person to actually put a stop to him.

But right now she needed to think. What had he said? 'Unaccompanied'? So either he didn't know Shoto was there, or he wanted to go into the record that he wasn't there. Maybe her friend would be held accountable as well and be submitted to any punishment (or worse) that Mina was going to be put through, and the General wouldn't want that, as it could take away his favorite weapon of mass destruction. That, or Shoto actually DID held the rank, in which case she had been allowed to be there by accompanying him, but the General just didn't like that another person was aware of the secret floor, a person that he hadn't chosen to be in the known about it.

Her eyes drifted from the General to Shinzo. A single glance, just to tell him to read her mind. Less than a second to formulate a single thought: 'Guide Shoto here. We need him. He's one of my only chances.'

But she didn't know if he was done with Midoriya. They had left a complete mess when she was taken. Her thoughts went to the green-haired boy. One second, the kindest person she had ever met. With every word he directed at her full of care for her wellbeing. Damn, that boy… had truly left her speechless. What was she supposed to think? Not only was he not cut for the life of a soldier, but he would have hated himself if he lived one. And yet, he hadn't thought of that when he agreed to help Aizawa save them.

And the next second, he had become a mindless attacker. Full of so much pain and a traumatic past that his body acted on its own accord. He had attacked soldiers, even when she was in the middle. That was contradictory; she knew it wasn't a voluntary move. And she had seen his face. The face of someone who didn't know where he was standing or on what moment in time he was. There was much more to his past than just being a prisoner. There was something that still affected him. It was something that could have to do with General Yagi, given that Endeavour thought there was a connection. But she didn't know what.

But luckily, if her gut was right, neither did the General.

"All charges are untrue. I was there with a Brigadier, who ordered me to be there." That small part was a lie, but she wasn't going to tell anyone that. She would have to apologize to Shoto later.

"Is that so?" asked the General to one of the soldiers. The prick was going to actually act as if he didn't know what was happening? He was going to play that part, huh? Then Mina was going to beat him in that game. Luckily, she still had her ace under her sleeve.

"We didn't saw any Brigadier accompanying the Lieutenant" responded the soldier, as it was expected. The soldiers under the General always acted like he wanted them to. 'Fucking extras' Bakugo would have called them. And he would have been 100% right.

"So, now you're trying to lie?" said the General, turning to see Mina again.

"I'm not. I was accompanied by a Brigadier" she knew better than to say Shoto's name. It would just make her look more guilty, trying to use the General's own son as a piece of her defense. "I saw the prisoners, and I talked with specially one: I talked with Izuku Midoriya."

"What? How? What did he told you?" said Endeavour, clearly surprised by that fact the green-haired prisoner had talked. Bingo. Mina's hunch was right: he hadn't told them anything. "How did you make him agreed to talk to you?" The General was raising his voice.

"He is clearly under psychological stress, but he did hold a conversation with us," she felt all the eyes in the room on her. At least a two pairs of them were supportive. "However, he did attack the soldiers that pointed guns at him without a second thought. He is unstable, as his record says." Wow. She had to paint Midoriya in such a bad light for the plan to work? That disgusted her.

"But you want his power, am I right?" asked Mina, addressing both Endeavour and the other officers in front of her. "His power, a strength enhancer of possible Omega level; it's an invaluable resource, and it would make him an invaluable soldier, even stronger if he was willing to fight." She stopped there. They didn't need to know Shinzo had told her his suspicions. No, she just had to say enough to make them think that they thought of the idea: a mind-controlled soldier was just a machine with an on/off switch. It was as good as the controller was. But a willing soldier… it could think, move, plan. He was much stronger, much faster, and much more powerful.

She was selling them Midoriya as a soldier, in exchange for her life.

Or at least, that's what she wanted them to think.

"So what, Lieutenant Ashido?" asked Endeavour. She had his attention. She had _their_ attention, and that's all she needed.

"I can give him to you," said Mina, looking him directly in the eyes. She took a deep breath before continuing. This was it. "I've already hold conversations with him. I know him, and he appears to be open to talk to me. I can use that as an opening to get information about him, as well as to handle his trauma and even convince him to act as a soldier."

She could practically feel Shinzo smiling at her. Because of his quirk, he knew the General's thoughts. And all was going exactly how she needed to.

Enji Todoroki stayed silent for some time as he pondered the idea. The other officers started murmuring between themselves. A minute passed before he walked forward and stood in front of Mina, with the fire in his face bigger than before, extending to his uniform. He was looking her as if he wanted to squash her. Like a man saw a particularly ugly bug. "You will report to me twice a week. At the first lack of information in your reports, you will face consequences." And with that, he turned around and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

As the officers and Shinzo walked out of the room following him, Mina let out a single tear. She had been so scared and frustrated. Even if she didn't show it, she was terrified of the General. And now she couldn't have the advantage of him not being aware of her existence. Now she had painted a giant target on her back, and he hated her for making herself important to him.

As Aizawa walked up to her, he cut the ropes that were tying her to the chair and placed a hand on her shoulder. It was his way of showing some support, so she didn't question it nor resisted it. It was what she needed. Every bit of strength she had held while facing the General was gone. She was so tired… she just wanted to cry and sleep, maybe for a week.

However, as she looked up to the door where Endeavour had walked out, she made a promise. She knew she would have to do as he said. She knew he would now have to find a way to both find out and reveal Midoriya's secrets. She will try to help him through his trauma, and maybe make him able to fight. She would be playing with the emotions of the sweet, caring boy that had saved her life, all under the orders of what she could only define as a monster. But there was one thing she will never do:

She will never make Midoriya their weapon.

. . . . . . .

 _Epilogue_

Midoriya sat in his bed, a dumbbell in his hand, again immersed in thought as he exercised, and thinking about what happened that day.

When he stopped seeing red, he'd found himself frozen, unable to move, by the white and red haired guy. The pink girl… she was gone. He didn't know where she was. It all had happened so fast. The soldiers, they had pointed their guns at him. They had pointed their guns at _her_. He had to protect her, but it all had ended before he even realized it.

The teen had then explained. Izuku had gone into full attack mode. He had activated his quirk. He had put everyone in danger, and he had not only pointed his attack

Or better to call it what it was: his cell.

Leaving the exercise equipment on the floor, he stood up and touched the white wall. He had been told it was strong enough to hold him captive. That no level of super strength was going to be able to even dent the cell.

But they've been wrong. It nearly broke his arm, but he was able to create a little crack on the wall. However, after that he stopped trying. One of the reasons for stopping was that breaking his arm was too dangerous. And even if he managed to escape, what was the point? He was alone. The two only persons he'd cared about were gone. All Might was gone. His mother was gone. And he'd been unable to help either of them, not even with all the power he now holds.

The power he had been given: One for All.

All of those thoughts leave Izuku as his ears caught a sound coming from beside his bed. A scratching. _He_ wanted to talk to him.

Izuku turned around, and using the smallest level of power from One for All, pushed the bed slightly away, revealing the wall behind it, and the source of the sound: a crack.

The other reason he chose to not try to escape was that he'd been told that it was better to wait.

The One for All holder sat down with his back to the wall and his ear close to the crack. "Hello?" he asked, with no fear in his voice. He was talking to a friend, after all.

" _Who were they?_ " asked a rough, scruffy male voice. He had heard them.

"A boy and a girl. Both quirked. The girl wanted to say thanks. Then they started asking some questions, mainly about my situation."

" _Soldiers?_ " asked the man at the other side of the wall with the kind of interest that made Izuku nervous. The kind that made you think that you had been doing something wrong.

"Yeah, they were," Izuku sigh, knowing the criticism that would fall over those two. "But they appear to be good people-"

" _Soldiers nonetheless. They're living weapons of a mad general who only wants them for power alone. Quirked people used to be either heroes or villains, and you know on what side of the divide these killers would fall!_ " Izuku winced at that statement. Yeah, he had heard his arguments. And he had agreed to most of them. But maybe there was the possibility of him being wrong?

"I saved them…" he muttered. In response

" _That says more about you than about them. You're a good kid, Midoriya, but naïve even at your best. You know what Endeavour asked about: your power. This army doesn't care about you. Your power is all they care about._ "

Izuku shook his head, so that the voice behind the wall wouldn't see his denial. After everything had gone down, Shoto had made sure he was calmed before releasing him. Izuku was so thankful he had been there. If he wasn't, he could have hurt people, or worst. The pink girl in particular, who Shoto had referred as Ashido, had been nearly caught between the soldiers and him. He didn't want to think how horrible it would have been if he actually proceeded with the attack. Shoto had left after making sure he was ok, promising to return some day.

And Ashido… Shoto had been clear that they being there was all her. She wanted to find Izuku. It was the first time in a long time that someone actually cared about his existence, other than them wanting something out of him. Information, muscle… it seemed that was the entire world cared. But they didn't. They actually went there to meet _him_.

"There's always an exception…" started Izuku, only to be interrupted.

" _You knew the exception. And they will never be at his level. You talked to him. You told me his story. Do you think they haven't killed in cold blood? He never did. He never surrendered his principles or what he believed in. But they… they are no exceptions. Those soldiers are all the same._ "

Izuku felt a tear drop down his cheek while he heard those words. A tear of sadness, sadness brought by the thought of his mentor, his friend. The one who believed in him before anyone else did; the one who gave him the means to achieve his goal.

All Might.

. . . . . . .

 **So I hoped you guys liked this chapter. Another backstory revealed! Whatever your thoughts, I would LOVE to hear about them in the comments. I cannot say how much they mean for us writers.**

 **I thought being on vacation would mean more free time to write and/or draw, though that's not been the case. A lot of family needing help with taking care of siblings and lifting some weight jajaja it ends up eating most of my time.**

 **For those who don't know, I have a Tumblr! Same name, same deal, mostly BnHA stuff. I have a lot of drawings there, so would be cool if you checked it out.**

 **So follow, favorite and comment! And I will see you next time!** **Sarani muko e! Plus Ultra!**


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